Tar Heels silenced by top-seeded Tennessee as UNC baseball drops College World Series game

There were no late-inning North Carolina theatrics on Sunday night.

Cardiac Carolina squared off with the No. 1 team in the country and couldn’t match swings with Tennessee’s power bats.

The Volunteers hit their third and fourth home runs out of Charles Schwab Field at the 2024 Men’s College World Series and shut down the Tar Heels, 6-1.

That bumped North Carolina into a Tuesday 1 p.m. elimination game with Florida State and a shrinking margin of error.

Like Florida State, Tennessee features a lineup that ranks top 10 in the nation in slugging percentage (No. 2, .615). That power created just three extra-base hits but it was enough to beat the suppressed North Carolina offense.

Tennessee starter Drew Beam went through the North Carolina lineup in order his first time through on just 21 pitches—19 of them strikes. The Tar Heels came closest when the first-base umpire said Volunteers first baseman Blake Burke pulled his foot off the bag trying to put out Parks Harber.

Upon review, the umpires agreed Burke got back to the bag and Harber was out.

North Carolina finally jumped on Beam the third time through the order.

Vance Honeycutt sent Beam’s offering 401 feet over the left field fence at 111 miles per hour. Casey Cook followed with a single into right and Tennessee third baseman Billy Amick couldn’t handle a sharp hit from Harber.

That ended Beam’s day with four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in over four innings. Tennessee reliever Kirby Connell inherited runners on first and second with no outs but North Carolina couldn’t get anyone across.

Tennessee’s pitchers combined to allow one hit and two walks in four innings.

For the fifth time in the last six games Carolina scored four runs or fewer. It was also the first time since April 9 that the team scored just one run.

The Tar Heels countered with starter Shea Sprague, who attacked the long-ball lineup with a mix of high-80s fastballs and off-speed offerings. The lefty struck out four of the first 12 batters he faced while just two of them reached safely. He then issued his second walk and the nation’s leader in home runs finally showed up.

Sprague tried to sneak a strike on a 2-0 count against Kavares Tears with runners on first and second. Tears sent it 390 feet into the North Carolina bullpen for his 20th homer of the season to give Tennessee a 3-0 lead in the fourth.

The left-handed junior came back out for the fifth and was greeted by the bat of Reese Chapman. Tennessee’s designated hitter jumped on a 1-0 pitch and sent the ball 411 feet into right field. North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes then pulled Sprague after four-plus innings, four earned runs, three hits, two walks and six strikeouts.

Matthew Matthijs, Ben Peterson, Cameron Padgett and Connor Bovair combined to allow just four hits and two runs in the last four innings.

They may be called upon again during the team’s attempts to prolong the season this week.